For that matter, why is the outfit and hairstyle of a female politician, be it Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Condoleeza Rice, Angela Merkel, etc..., always subject to comments, while one rarely hears comments about the ties and suits of male politicians, unless they appear in fashion spreads for ridiculously expensive Italian designer suits, which is what Gerhard Schröder did (at the same time while he was cutting welfare payments to the poor - one can imagine how well that went down).

For that matter, why is the outfit and hairstyle of a female politician, be it Hilary Clinton, Sarah Palin, Condoleeza Rice, Angela Merkel, etc..., always subject to comments, while one rarely hears comments about the ties and suits of male politicians, unless they appear in fashion spreads for ridiculously expensive Italian designer suits, which is what Gerhard Schröder did (at the same time while he was cutting welfare payments to the poor - one can imagine how well that went down).

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Well, because it doesn't fit the small town hockey-mom persona that the Republlican Party put behind her. For Palin, it was a fake. A small town hockey mom doesn't shop at Neiman Marcus. Macy's...yes, NM or Sachs...no way. They wanted to portray her as a folksy-everywoman. I think that pretty much blew up in their faces when the price of her wardrobe was revealed. And the sad part of it is that she could have looked damn good shopping in less expensive stores. Poor management.

It's been said before elsewhere, but Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" truly is a waste of space. This morning they had some guy from Newsweek on who was talking about how Palin might have done better if she had been appointed as McCain's Secretary of Energy or Interior but, as his running mate, she was over promoted. So, Mika responds -- and I'm paraphrasing -- "as has other women." There was a dead silence after that and then they moved on to something else.

On what planet have women been notoriously "over promoted?!" As far as I can tell, the two most over pomoted women are Palin and Mika, herself. In fact, men are usually the ones promoted over equally or more competent women. That's what the glass-ceiling's all about.

Later, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, of The Nation, came on and talked about how -- despite Hillary and Palin -- women making strides in politics at the national level has been plateauing.